Thursday, October 29, 2009

Brown Booby in Coos Bay, Oregon

Birders in Oregon were excited recently when an adult Brown Booby was discovered in Coos Bay.

The first photo was posted to Oregon Birders On-Line by Owen Schmidt on the afternoon of October 29.

Here are the details of the discovery, according to Russ Namitz:

At approximately 10:00 AM on October 26th, 2009, Suzette Eagler was crabbing with her husband by boat in the lower bay on the western shore of Coos Bay. She recognized the bird as possibly being a booby species and contacted OIMB. The message was forward Professor Jan Hodder who then emailed me in the afternoon. Tim Rodenkirk and I went out searching in the late afternoon and relocated the bird around 5PM. We called Dave Lauten and Kathy Castelein to inform them that we were looking at the bird. They drove to Fossil Pt. where I was still looking at the bird.

The bird was viewable from Fossil Pt., Pigeon Pt. and the highway overlook near the "Octagon" house, according to Namitz. The bird was roosting on a wooden day marker that was located between the floating red buoys 10 and 10A. Views, thus far, have been quite distant.